Andrew Constance has requested that the Australian Electoral Commission undertake a recount in the Federal seat of Gilmore. His request came just hours before the announcement that the seat had been won by Fiona Phillips, Labor.
While he is as liberty to request a recount it will be interesting to see if the AEC complies given the already scrupulous attention that has been applied to the counting of votes with adjustments made that were found to benefit the Labor candidate.
Yet the Liberal candidate persists telling About Regional:
“As counting has progressed over the last couple of weeks, my scrutineers have raised concerns in relation to certain aspects of the process, particularly the scrutiny of informal votes,” he said.
“Given the close result, I believe there are strong grounds for a recount and I have submitted a request to the Australian Electoral Commissioner.
“I will not be providing any further comment at this time while the Commissioner considers the request.”
The announcement of seeking a recount has come with a social media backlash against the Liberal candidate with most raising the issue of unnecessary cost and time delay given the efforts of so many to date in scrutineering by all parties and those tasked with counting.
Candidates who receive at least 4 per cent of the (first preference) vote are reimbursed for electoral expenses by a specified amount for each such vote they receive. Election funding is paid either to a registered political party on behalf of each endorsed candidate or is paid direct to a candidate who is not endorsed by a registered party. This amount (currently approximately $2.91 per eligible vote) is indexed every six months for inflation.
(source)
Andrew Constance received 46,941 first preference votes at $2.91 per vote which should return $136,598.31. It is not known if this payment is then returned to the Liberal Party who no doubt assisted his campaign.
The One Nation candidate just missed out at 3.99%
